I've got a slow persitent leak in one of the rubber tires on my Cattrax. I noticed that I can either buy just a replacement tire or a whole new tire/rim assembly. If I just order the tire, would I take it to an auto tire shop to have it replaced?

Alec

Alec - first make sure it's the tire. I had the same problem and it turned out that the valve stem had a crack.

Yeah, I thought it might be the valve stem as well considering that the metal part pulled right out of the valve stem the last time I tried to blow up the tire. However, when I was trying to break the tire seal around the rim, I noticed quite a lot of cracks in the rubber down near the rim. I ended up reglueing the metal guts of the valve stem back into the valve stem and reinflated the tire. Unfortunatley, the rate of deflation was unaffected by my valve stem repair job.

Small diameter tires are a booger to get on and off rims. I'd take it to a tire shop and ask them to leak test it. If it is leaking somewhere other than at the bead, they should be able to patch it for a reasonable price.

I'd take it to a tire shop and have them put a tube in it. Cost me like $25 to have this done.

Maybe try some of the goop they make for fixing flats on mountain bike tires first, before coughing up the big bucks....

Sheesh...spray some soapy water on it to first fine the leak. A tire shop can put in a new valve stem for cheap. You can probably change the tire with a set of tire spoons for about the same as it would cost to pay someone to mount it....then you have the spoons for next time you need them.

There's always Slime.

http://slime.com/tiresealant/

While you are at it, refill with nitrofill for higher performance.